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k-os balances rock and rap on new album BLack on BLonde

Dressed in his L.A. best — gold bracelet, ball cap, and thick-rimmed glasses — hip-hop artist k-os looks at home in the Soho House.

The private downtown club is a metaphor for the musician, a place where artistic types retreat to escape gawkers, but also a piece of Los Angeles inside Toronto.

His new double album, BLack on BLonde, is similarly an exercise in duality — one disc of hip-hop, another of rock.

k-os found his groove on this, his fifth studio album, in the L.A. mansion of friend Hayden Christensen. He built a studio in the actor’s living room and recorded the album’s 20 tracks there.

“It’s like I just hit oil — as soon as I woke up in the morning there and smelled the air I spent every day in the studio from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. just writing,” he said.

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k-os (a.k.a. Kheaven Brereton) is himself a man of two identities. While comfortable recording in L.A., he still found time to chat and swap beats with Toronto emcees Shad and Saukrates. BLack on BLonde was made in American but it has shades of Canadian hip-hop style splashed across it and includes special appearances by Emily Haines and Neil Young.

k-os says his style has evolved from his more rebellious days.

“I was like, I need to embrace this a little bit — I’m older, I’m more mature and it’s fun,” he said. “That’s the biggest change I would say from my earlier stuff in (previous album) Yes! is that I’m not mad about being in the music industry any more.”

Like much of k-os’s catalogue, the new album has fun at its core. He reached out to artists he’d long dreamed of working with such as ’80s superstar Corey Hart, famous for his 1983 single “Sunglasses at Night.” The former teen heartthrob guests on the first track, singing a piercing hook for the song “Like A Comet.”

k-os got the idea to work with Hart in 2008 and invited him to help sing the single “Sunday Morning” at the Juno Awards. The idol couldn’t make it, but the two kept in touch and finally Hart suggested they do a track together.

“He’s kind of like a mentor to me — he drops a lot of science and truth about the music industry,” said k-os.

“I remember when I was sending him the demos he was like, the first time, I was nervous because I sent him the demo of that song. He was like, ‘I don’t get this — like what are you doing here? What’s the arrangement?’” said k-os. “He was so real. He was like, ‘This is not up to par.’”

Some other science Hart laid on him: forget about getting a sample from the notoriously mercurial Neil Young. But k-os wasn’t deterred. He pressed on and Young cleared the sample.

Driving around with one of his friends, Young’s twangy “Cowgirl in the Sand” came on the radio and k-os started laying down rhymes over top. He was smitten and cut the track “Play This Game” right away.

“I feel like if you’re a black person or a hip-hopper you need to accept Neil Young into your life as a saviour,” said k-os.

Although k-os recorded the album in the U.S., the Toronto native never lost sight of his roots. He calls the track “Spraying My Pen”, which features Saukrates and Shad, a classic Toronto rap and he credits Drake with prying open the American market to a more Canadian sound. Where before he would be tempted to tailor his beats to American ears, now k-os says tastes have expanded.

“The most interesting thing about Drake is that he’s the first Canadian (hip-hop) artist that American people respect and I think that’s big for the black community in Canada,” said k-os.

“Not taking anything away from Drake or anyone else, but I feel like the Toronto hip-hop sound is not informed by the (current) American hip-hop sound,” said k-os. “It’s really informed by the true school and the golden age of hip-hop.”

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